As always happens around this time of year, fans, analysts and riders themselves begin to reflect on the season that has been and pick out highlights from the campaign. One such standout moment came from Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France.
En route to winning his second consecutive Maillot Jaune, the Jumbo-Visma leader put in the time-trial of a lifetime. Having never been considered an expert against the clock, much of the talk at the time was that Vingegaard's rival, Tadej Pogacar would use stage 16 to claw back some time in the general classification and maybe even take on yellow himself. That's not quite how things transpired however.
Vingegaard blitzed the entire field, Pogacar included, finishing the 22.4km course in 32.36. A time that was 1.38 better than Pogacar's and nearly three minutes better than anyone else in race. A truly phenomenal ride from the Dane that virtually secured overall victory and may have mentally cracked Pogacar before his physical crack the following day which saw the Slovenian lose nearly 6 further minutes.
"Everything is measured in cycling nowadays, but Vingegaard surprised all statisticians on his time trial bike in the Tour," Sporza analyst Jose de Cauwer recalls as part of their end-of-year review. "Even his own performance manager Mathieu Heijboer looked on in amazement from the car. It was great how he beat the numbers there."
Total exhaustion for Jonas Vingegaard after that incredible time trial effort.
— NBC Sports Cycling (@NBCSCycling) July 18, 2023
That moment with Wout van Aert! ❤️#TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/UHMeZTYdi3
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